Daily sales of gasoline rose to 76,500 tonnes in July, a jump of about 3.6% over the corresponding 2019 period and 5.7% over June this year, preliminary industry data showed on Friday.
India's gasoline sales recovered to pre-pandemic levels in October 2020 before a second deadly wave of infections began hitting the fuel's demand in April.
Rising fuel sales in India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, is a positive development for global oil markets.
With the easing of restrictions by the states after a decline in infections, motorists flocked to tourist destinations and markets, leading Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to warn against overcrowding.
Daily gasoil sales, which account for about two-fifths of India's overall refined fuel consumption and is directly linked to industrial activity in Asia's third-largest economy, was about 10.9% less than the same period of 2019, the data showed. It was about 3.5% lower than daily gasoil sales in June.
India Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, hopes gasoil sales to recover to pre-pandemic levels by November if there would be no stringent lockdowns due to the third wave of COVID-19 infections, its chairman S. M. Vaidya said on Friday.
State-run IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd own about 90% of the country's retail fuel outlets.
Below is a table of India' preliminary daily fuel sales data with volumes in thousand tonnes.
Product July June %chg July %chg July %chg vs
2021 2021 mth/mth 2020 yr/yr 2019 2019
Gasoline 76.5 72.3 5.7 65.4 17.0 73.9 3.6
Gasoil 175.8 182.2 -3.5 156.4 12.4 197.3 -10.9
Jet Fuel 9.4 8.0 17.2 7.3 29.5 20.0 -53.1
Liquefied 76.3 75.4 1.2 73.3 4.0 70.9 7.6
Petroleum Gas
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Louise Heavens)
